NEWS
Brian Walker’s research has contributed to the compilation of a new medical drug group capable of reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes. Dawn Skelton’s research focuses on the prevention of falling and obtaining injuries as well as training for the elderly. Brian Walker, Professor at the University of Edinburgh and Dawn Skelton, Professor at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland have both been appointed honorary doctors at the Faculty of Medicine in 2015.
Brian Walker is a researcher within translational research
Brian Walker, Professor at the University of Edinburgh, is an internationally established researcher in translational metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease research.
Translational research involves basing medical research on disease problems – actual care cases. The research conducted by Walker has led to a reduction in the cases of cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes by impeding the tissue specific formation of the stress hormone, cortisol.
Brian Walker has applied a wide range of research resources in Epidemiology, Genetics and Integrative Physiology as well as experimental studies and clinical trials. Furthermore, he has founded a corporation continuously working with the products originating from his research.
Walker has received large grants from British research foundations and has an array of international collaborations. He has been published numerous times in highly ranked medical magazines such as the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet and JAMA. Furthermore, he is the editor for Davidson’s Textbook of Medicine and has supervised more than 40 PhD students to completion. He is head of The British Heart Foundation Centre for Cardiovascular Science at the University of Edinburgh, as well as co-directs the Edinburgh Clinical Academic Training Programme (ECAT).
Umeå University is in long-term and productive collaboration with Brian Walker and has had the pleasure of welcoming Walker to campus on numerous occasions where he has participated in seminars, held lectures and supervised PhD students. Several doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers have worked at his centre over short and long periods of time.
Dawn Skelton is a researcher in interventions to reduce falls for the elderly
Dawn Skelton, Professor in Ageing and Health at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland specialises in exercise interventions to reduce falls for the elderly and is an internationally recognised researcher in the area of exercise and physical activity in older people. She has received numerous large grants from the British Research Council and has played an important part in the EU financed consortiums involving fall preventive measures and physical activity.
As an exercise physiologist, she focuses on improving the use of physical activities on prescription, reducing inactive behavioural patterns as well as supporting strategies and motivation in fragile older individuals and persons with disabilities who are normally exempt from both research and practice.
Having co-edited the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity for over a decade, she has seen a steady increase of research in this area and is herself also contributing to the quality of research by participating in panels for differing research grant givers in the UK, Canada and Finland. Dawn Skelton serves as a model in the development of future female leaders of higher education and is a mentor for many young researchers in the UK, Europe and Canada. She co-organised the 8th edition of the World Congress on Active Ageing in Glasgow in 2012, is a commissioned author for the World Health Organisation as well as the Department of Health and has had over a hundred of her articles published.
She is passionate about making research operational and ten years ago she set up a non-profit corporation in the UK, Later Life Training, focusing on training staff in health, fitness and care in order to, in a more efficient way, work with physical activities on prescription as well as strategies for motivation and support. The corporation has trained more than 5,000 people in the UK and its educational training activities are now presented all over Europe.
In her role as guest professor at the Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Dawn Skelton has visited Umeå University twice per year for up to two weeks per stay. In between her visits, the collaboration has been led using distance-spanning media. During her visits to Umeå University, Dawn Skelton has held seminars and lectured in both doctoral studies as well as first-cycle courses and study programmes. She has also been the opponent in PhD seminars and has collaborated with Region Västerbotten in an EU funded project as well as with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions.
“Dawn Skelton is generous in sharing her knowledge and is inspiring to work with. This leads to researchers from several units within the Faculty of Medicine to have been in contact with her. Furthermore, Dawn expresses that Umeå and Umeå University has become like a home away from home,” says Lillemor Lundin-Olsson, Professor at the Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation.
“I am delighted to have been selected for an Honorary Doctorate from the Faculty of Medicine at Umeå University. This accolade is a rarity and I feel very honoured. This honour also cements the research and publication collaborations I have enjoyed building, and will continue to flourish, with Professor Lillemor Lundin-Olsson and others,” says Dawn Skelton.
For more information about Brian Walker, please contact:
Tommy Olsson, Professor at the Department of Public Health and Clinical MedicinePhone: +46 90 785 18 45 Email: tommy.g.olsson@umu.se
For more information about Dawn Skelton, please contact:
Lillemor Lundin-Olsson, Professor at the Department of Community Medicine and RehabilitationPhone: +46 90 786 91 35 Email: lillemor.lundin.olsson@umu.se
The insignia for both honorary doctors will be presented at the university’s annual celebration ceremony taking place on Saturday 17 October 2015.
